On 16/02/10 at 20:35 +0000, Philipp Kern wrote:
> On 2010-02-16, Lucas Nussbaum <lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net> wrote:
> > Systemtap[1] is a tool allowing to dynamically insert probes in the
> > Linux kernel, similarly to what is possible with DTrace on Solaris.
> > [1] http://sourceware.org/systemtap/
> >
> > The state of systemtap in Debian is currently worrying. First, the
> > package has been orphaned (#568866). I'm willing to take over
> > maintenance, but there's another, bigger problem: the Debian kernels
> > don't provide debuginfo, so they are unsuitable for use with systemtap.
> > Users are required to build a custom kernel.
> > This has been discussed at length in #365349, and the blockers are:
> >
> > - disk space on buildds: at least 2 GiB are required to build a kernel
> > with debuginfo. (that doesn't sound too hard to satisfy)
> >
> > - mirror space: each debug .deb would use ~ 450 MB (see
> > http://ddebs.ubuntu.com/pool/main/l/linux/)
> >
> > Debian is currently the only major distro where users are required to
> > build their own kernel to use systemtap, so I think that we should try
> > to support it, at least for some kernel flavors and some
> > architectures.
> >
> > Kernel, buildd and mirror people, what do you think?
>
> Is that supported on all architectures or is it architecture-specific?
Systemtap requires CONFIG_KPROBES, which is architecture specific.
It works on x86(_64), ia64, arm, sparc, s390, powerpc.
> Would it be sufficient to provide that infrastructure on the fast
> arches? I'm concerned how much it increases the build process on our
> slow architectures, especially considering that you need to write a lot
> more to disk than it used to and I/O is not that fast.
>
> I guess we can arrange it for i386, amd64, powerpc, s390 and ia64 buildd-
> wise.
Well, anything would be better than the current situation. I'd be fine
with i386 and amd64 for one kernel flavor for squeeze, but the more, the
better ;)
--
| Lucas Nussbaum
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